A lot of Age of Empires related news was released last year which was a surprise to many fans of the long-time RTS franchise. Not only did we receive news of an Age of Empires 4 but we also learned Age of Empires 1, 2 and 3 are all receiving remasters.
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, a remaster of the first game in the series, was supposed to release last year but ended up being delayed, much to the displeasure of fans. As it turns out, the game was actually announced as delayed in a post on Age of Empires official website. Instead of releasing the game on October 19, the team decided to keep inviting players to the beta which will allow for more testing across the single player and multiplayer modes.
The new release date has been announced as February 20 worldwide for Windows 10 PCs.
When we set out to create the Definitive Edition of the original Age of Empires, our goal was to deliver the best possible version of this classic, from a top notch audio-visual presentation to multiplayer to core game systems. Everything needed to be as good as you remembered it (or better!) to deliver a compelling RTS experience 20 years after its original release.
…and that took us a bit longer than we’d originally planned. But, it was important for the team to treat the Age of Empires franchise with the respect it deserves, so we took the time we needed to get features like attack-move and the improved minimap exactly right, and even added things like an in-game tech tree (how did we survive 1997 without that?) that we hope fans will love.
At Gamescom 2017, it was announced both Age of Empires 2 and Age of Empires 3 will be joining their predecessor and will each receive a remaster. We’re a bit unclear on how that will work with Age of Empires 2 given it has the HD edition available on Steam and it still receives updates with regularity.
The Definitive Edition of Age of Empires 1 will be completely rebuilt to allow for 4K textures, come with Xbox Live multiplayer and LAN play, a brand new recorded soundtrack, campaign narration for every mission and the ability to create custom campaigns.
Another multiplayer beta will be opening up on January 29 to give players another chance to jump into the action before the official launch of the game. You can find more information on the beta and sign up for it at AgeOfEmpires.com.
What we won’t have for this game is an Xbox One version. RTS games generally don’t work well without a mouse and keyboard but we have seen some exceptions, most notably the Halo Wars series on Xbox 360 and Xbox One, which was actually developed by Ensemble Studios, the original developer of the Age of Empires series. Those games were built with consoles in mind while Age of Empires wasn’t which is likely a good reason we aren’t seeing an Xbox One or console version.
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